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Egypt's Christians Bid Farewell to Patriarch

By

Matt Bradley

Updated March 20, 2012 5:37 p.m. ET

CAIRO—Tens of thousands of Egyptians thronged the Abbasiya Cathedral in Egypt's capital on Tuesday for the funeral Mass of Pope Shenouda III, whose death on Saturday evening left the country's Coptic Orthodox Christian minority rudderless at a moment of profound political uncertainty.

The body of Pope Shenouda III, who led the Coptic Church for 41 years before his death from liver and lung disease at age 88, was buried on Tuesday evening at the St. Bishoy Monastery in the desert outside Cairo.